Deion Sanders on Dez Bryant: 'You got to stop being selfish'

Former Dallas Cowboys cornerback and 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Deion Sanders doesn’t sound confident in Dez Bryant’s ability to stay out of trouble off the field.

Bryant, who was recently involved in a criminal trespass warning at NorthPark Center in Dallas, angered Sanders last summer for “not living up to his side of the bargain.”

Sanders, who joined Thursday’s Bad Radio Show on KTCK-AM 1310 The Ticket to give his thoughts on Bryant’s recent run in with mall security, described an event that he sponsored for youths and asked Bryant to be a part of. When Bryant committed but failed to stay true to his word, Sanders reached a breaking point.

“I was done,” Sanders said. “Because it’s bigger than you. It’s about more people than you, and you got to stop being selfish and thinking everything is about you in life. It’s about a lot of people.”

Sanders went on to compare Bryant and his troubled past to that of former Cowboys cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones. However, Sanders said there is a major difference between the two.

“The difference between those guys is that Pac has had a troubled past, but he’s an honest kid,” Sanders said. “If he messes up, he admits it and he’s honest. He’s not going to look at you in the eye and lie to you. He’s a straight up, honest kid. Both of them suffer from a lot of childhood problems, but one kid tells you just like it is and one kid tells you what he thinks you want to hear.

“And I detached myself a long time ago because what he did could have hurt my other kids, four or five hundred of them. I can’t do it. I stopped doing it a long time ago.”

Bryant and Sanders have been linked in the past beyond the youth camp. The NCAA suspended Bryant, who at the time was playing for Oklahoma State, in September 2009 for the remainder of that season after lying about having lunch with Sanders. And Sanders still seems upset that he took a lot of the blame for Bryant's lie.

“Just like the incident with Dez and I, why didn’t people just say the kid lied,” Sanders said. “How are you going to jump on me about a kid that’s lying? … If Tony Romo gets in trouble, are you going to blame one of his homeboys? No! You going to blame Tony.”

Sanders was asked if what Bryant is dealing with is an immaturity issue.

“Very much so,” Sanders said. “The same thing people are criticizing this kid for is the same thing I was trying to help him with.

“Years and years ago when everything was behind the curtain, behind the veil … that you didn’t see past the talent. You didn’t see this hurting kid who grew up with a very ignorant, I would say, childhood that he had nothing to do with, it’s just the hand that he was dealt. But there’s a way to handle it.

Sanders went on to say he can deal with any type of kid.

“Even the Chad’s (Ochocinco), the T.O.’s (Terrell Owens), the Ray Lewis’, all these other kids, a lot of kids that don’t have the names that you wouldn’t even know if I mentioned their names … I just don’t deal with superstars,” he said. “These guys are straight up. Just be honest with me. That’s all that I ask. I can deal with anything as long as you’re honest.”

David Wells, who is Bryant’s advisor, has been involved with trying to get the mall ban lifted. Wells is someone that Sanders believes is an important figure in Bryant’s life.

“His guy would never say it, but I’ll say it for him, David Wells is the best thing to ever happen to that kid,” Sanders said. “You guys don’t realize what David has done for his mother, for his siblings, for his whole family, for him.

“This guy is a great guy. If it wasn’t for David Wells, this guy probably wouldn’t even be in football, let’s get that straight. David is a good dude, but the problem with David, he’s not going to tell you everything, and he shouldn’t because you don’t need to know everything.

“But David is really the only hope he has right now. David gets a lot of the blame, but I don’t know how you can blame a grown man for another grown man’s actions. Now, how can you blame a grown man when another grown man is handsomely paid with the opportunity of a lifetime and is acting in pure ignorance? Tell me that.”

When it was said that the incident at the mall shouldn’t be thought of as a big deal, Sanders responded: “I do. A lot of kids look up to these guys. Especially NorthPark mall, are you kidding me? There are so many malls that you could pick if you want to be ignorant. But NorthPark mall, that’s not one. Everytime you walk in there there’s a ghetto alert on.”

So would Sanders be worried about Dez Bryant if he owned the Cowboys?

“If I’m an owner and I’m owning the team, I’m not going to worry about Dez Bryant now,” Sanders said. “I would have been worried about Dez Bryant before I made the pick. Because I would have done my homework, my due diligence, my research, and put people in places to make sure that A, B, C and D is right and that’s what Jerry (Jones) has done. I know that to be a fact.

“They should know and they knew what they were getting in to. One thing about it, when you have a lot of success on that field, you going to have problems somewhere in your life, man. That’s everybody. Am I worried about these issues? I’m worried about every guy who is extremely successful.”

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